Unforgetting the Histories of Hiring: School Board Effects on Superintendent Labor Pathways

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Reframing Governance: Policy, Power, and Pathways in Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between school board racial and gender composition and superintendent labor pathways in Arizona. I will use publicly available information of both school board members and superintendents in Arizona and a survey instrument to build a database of school board members and superintendents covering the last ten years (2015-2025) in education. I will run a series of t-tests to analyze the relationship between school board composition and superintendent hiring. Based on the longitudinal nature of this study, the definition of the variables, and the data collection methods, I anticipate my study will show a statistically significant relationship between diversity in school board composition and increased diversity in superintendent selection.

Author

• John Matthew Fredericks, Arizona State University